By Dean Goodman
Thu Aug 30, 11:04 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jimi Hendrix's breakthrough performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, when he transfixed the American rock cognoscenti with a set that climaxed with the immolation of his guitar, will be released on DVD for the first time on October 16.

"The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey" (Universal Music) includes incendiary versions of original material such as his first single "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze," as well as covers of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" and Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone."

A soundtrack CD and LP, which will also be released that day, additionally feature the tune "Can You See Me." Director D.A. Pennebaker's crew turned off their cameras during that song and there is not a single frame of footage in the filmmaker's archive, according to John McDermott, the Hendrix expert who oversees the guitarist's catalog.

In addition to the usual audiovisual enhancements, the DVD package boasts a new documentary, "American Landing," featuring previously unseen interviews. Also included are extensive liner notes and rare photos.

An audio version was previously released in 1986 by Polydor Records and producer Alan Douglas as "Jimi Plays Monterey." A companion VHS version featured commentary from John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, who organized Monterey with Lou Adler. Before that, Reprise Records released festival highlights on "Otis Redding/The Jimi Hendrix Experience" in 1970.

Hendrix, the toast of the London rock scene, was largely unknown to his countrymen when he and his Experience bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, a.k.a. "these two cats," made their U.S. debut in the all-star lineup at Monterey, near San Francisco on June 18, 1967.

According to Phillips, Hendrix almost came to blows backstage with Who principal Pete Townshend because neither wanted to follow the other. After Hendrix lost a coin toss, he jumped up on a chair and vowed to "pull out all the stops and blow everybody away," Phillips recalled in the VHS release.

The performance began with an introduction from Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, who described his good friend as "a brilliant performer, the most exciting guitarist I've ever heard." It ended about 40 minutes later with a cover of "Wild Thing," during which Hendrix played his guitar behind his back, set it aflame, smashed it to pieces and tossed the fragments into the stunned crowd. His takeover of America was complete.

Reuters

from Billboard--

Hendrix's Monterey Set Buffed Up For CD, DVD



August 30, 2007, 2:55 PM ET

Jessica Letkemann, N.Y.

All of documentarian D.A. Pennebaker's footage of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's classic 1967 Monterey Pop performance is coming to DVD for the first time on Oct. 16. "The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey," which will simultaneously be available on CD and vinyl, arrives the same day that the previously announced five-city Experience Hendrix tour kicks off in Boson.

The "Monterey" DVD, from Experience Hendrix/Geffen/UMe, captures the first U.S. performance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which took place on June 18, 1967, and spawned the iconic moment of Hendrix setting his guitar on fire.

In addition to an intro by the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, the disc also features previously unreleased February 1967 Experience performances in England, previously unreleased interviews with Hendrix and JHE's Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, a documentary about the Monterey Pop Festival and copious liner notes co-written by Mitchell. Pennebaker's footage from Monterey has been bumped up to high definition specs, and the soundtrack is in 5.1 surround sound.

The CD and vinyl add the track "Can You See Me," which does not appear on the DVD.

Also in the pipeline is "Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience," which will be published by Simon and Schuster/Atria this fall. The book includes unseen photographs, drawings Hendrix did as a child and handwritten lyric sheets. The included CD features a selection of interviews and songs from unreleased live and studio recordings.


Here is the track list for "The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at Monterey" DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VI6T6U/?tag=imwan-20

Introduction by Brian Jones
"Killing Floor"
"Foxy Lady"
"Like a Rolling Stone"
"Rock Me Baby"
"Hey Joe"
"The Wind Cries Mary"
"Purple Haze"
"Wild Thing"

Here is the track list for the CD and vinyl:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VI6T6K/?tag=imwan-20

Introduction by Brian Jones
"Killing Floor"
"Foxy Lady"
"Like a Rolling Stone"
"Rock Me Baby"
"Hey Joe"
"Can You See Me"
"The Wind Cries Mary"
"Purple Haze"
"Wild Thing"

Is this different than the Criterion Collection Monterey release? The track listing looks like it's the same version.

I still have the VHS version. Wow is it really 20 years old?

Yeah, this is puzzling--this concert has been issued before on both CD and DVD--although no more puzzling than the 47 different "Hendrix At Woodstock" packages.

Experience Hendrix have a strange way of marketing Jimi's music.

Yes the Monterey DVD is a great show and should be awsome on DVD but what about the 100s of unreleased studio and live stuff still in the vaults?

The Feb 1969 Albert Hall show has been long rumored to be comming out on DVD for some time and this should be released in the near future too, having seen a rough version of the show on video it's brilliant.

I'll be grabbing this the minute I see it.

I know that there's alot of other things they could be putting out but I'm just glad that there's anything coming soon as it seems to have been awhile since the last release.

(Yes I am also hoping for an official Royal ALbert's Hall release sometime soon...)

I'm getting this for the different camera angles and for a possible new sonic perspective on the music as well as the unreleased '67 material. If anything, buying this will hopefully make EH more inclined to put out more new product. This is the first time in a few years that a formal EH/Universal title of Hendrix has been released. It will be worthwhile to note if we get a year-end Dagger release or not.

G'day Steve

I agree with you.

Does anyone know if there was or still is any legal problems at Experience Hendrix?
Maybe that's why there has been very little new Jimi.

ranasakawa,
G'day to you, sir. There are a number of variables at work which are open to speculation as to why things have been slow over at EH. You pointed out one of them. And yes, there have been wranglings back and forth between Janie and Leon/Janie vs. other labels producing grey market boots, etc. The other factors include speculation over just how musically oriented Janie really wants EH to be, her treatment of past members of Jimi's bands, her marketing, etc. And then throw in the general shakiness of the music industry as it specifically pertains to Universal and you have the ingredients for uneven reliability at best. I really wish that Janie would put in an infrastructure of people in there who are big on music first. If she wants to concentrate on the Experience Hendrix product catalog stuff of t-shirts, glasses, posters, etc., then she could concentrate on that. The thing is that she also wants to control Jimi's image. If you've been able to notice ever since she took over, she has made it a point to cut out the vast majority (if not all) of the drug references one can infer from Jimi. She's trying to squeeze him out as being some sort of saint. This is being influenced by the fact that she is herself a re-born again Christian (if I'm recalling correctly). On the other hand, we don't have to see Jimi as some kind of total slimeball drug user either. I just believe that Janie has pushed things to too far an extreme and the music has been one of the victims.

Hello Steve

I was shocked years ago when they started to sell Jimi Boxer Shorts and plastic models etc as well as the T-shirts and other strange things. Even baby clothes.

They are now selling Jimi Hendrix mineral water products.

You are right again, Janie is not into the music at all.

Why not make the surviving members and Kramer the music directors?

I think the same can be said of Laura Joplin. Since the 1993 boxed set came out (along with her "authorized" biography of her sister) she's been trying to recast Janis from a 60's/70's counterculture hellraiser into a 21st century feminist icon/victim. The truth, as it always has, lies somewhere in the middle.

Here's the DVD, coming out tomorrow:



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VI6T6U/?tag=imwan-20

And here's the companion audio CD of this concert:

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20313

If you can still find it, The UK Charly box of RAH has excellent sound (other then cd3 which is an audie of a different show)

Royal Albert Hall '69 has now been targeted for a Spring '08 release from EH.